Tuesday, August 14, 2007

A look at Bear and Goldman

"When Bear Stearns's two funds, High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies and High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage, nosedived in June, the company tried to forestall a total collapse by halting withdrawals and unloading securities to meet lenders' demand for more collateral. That strategy failed, and Bear Stearns was forced to bail out one of the funds with a $1.6 billion loan. Investors in the other fund were wiped out. Goldman took a different course of action. When assets in the firm's Global Equity Opportunities hedge fund dropped by 28 percent this month, Goldman yesterday pumped in $2 billion of fresh capital and raised $1 billion more from investors"